Out Amongst the Stars
by therentistoodamnhigh
Summary: A collection of short fics for a Black Butler AU where (almost) everything is the same except it's in space.
1. Setting the Stage

AN: This AU was taken from a few posts on my tumblr and adapted for posting here (check out my tumblr here(replace 'dot' and 'slash' with '.' and '/' respectively): silverpracticality dot tumblr dot com slash search slash kuro+space+au). This background chapter was included here because there's lot's of good stuff and important information for understanding the basics of this AU. There isn't much to it yet, but I love this AU too much to just accidentally abandon it like I did my other stories (whoops. I'll get to those eventually, I promise.).

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Imagine a kuroshitsuji futuristic space AU where everything is the same except it's in space.

Instead of a manor, Ciel lives in a state-of-the-art spaceship. Sebastian is the captain and navigator; he could probably take care of the ship all by himself but Ciel made him hire other people to take care of things. Bard is the resident weapons expert and cook (he's actually become a fairly decent cook, what with all the cooking videos Sebastian makes him watch). Mey-Rin is the tech wizard and hacks enemy systems as needed. Finny makes repairs and does maintenance around the ship and is being trained by Sebastian to function as the equivalent of an engineer. Snake, a recent addition to the crew, does whatever Sebastian tells him to, but he's mostly being trained to work in the med bay. Tanaka is there mostly for moral support, but he keeps himself busy with menial tasks.

Imagine Ciel wearing shiny, iridescent clothing or clothing with glowing edging and designs on them. Ciel wearing bright blue glittery eye shadow (Sebastian always does his eyeliner because Ciel can never get the lines as straight as Sebastian can). Imagine Ciel getting creative with ways to cover up his contract eye: various glowing contact lenses, decorative partial masks(like the one the Phantom wore in "The Phantom of the Opera"), various adhesive patches of varying degrees of intricacy, embroidered cloth patches, etc. (Sebastian wouldn't let him get facial piercings to string an eye patch onto and Ciel damn near threw a temper tantrum over it. As it was, Ciel gave Sebastian the cold shoulder for over a week and Sebastian never let him forget it.) Imagine Ciel highlighting his hair in creative ways (streaks looked the best most of the time) and colors (white or pastels mostly) because as both a noble and a CEO of a toy and confectionery company, you have to stay edgy somehow.

Imagine Sebastian wearing subtle, smokey eye shadow using either all black or a silvery gray, and using a matte red for special occasions or when entertaining guests. (It's the one vanity he will allow himself; his day-to-day clothing is rather subdued, befitting of a servant.) Imagine the servants wearing sleek but comfortable uniforms, all with the Phantomhive crest on either the lapel or the arm.

Imagine Ciel doing dirty work as the Queen's Watch Dog and trekking with Sebastian through dirty, gritty, rough areas of space stations and space ships with a gun in his hand or tucked beneath his clothes while he goes around asking questions or skulking around corners. Imagine Sebastian still using cutlery in fights, but it's diamond-edged and has a magnet in one end for easier retrieval. Imagine Sebastian disposing of the bodies by sending them through the air lock. Imagine them slipping a few high-value monetary cards into the hand of the security guard so they can get into places they otherwise wouldn't.

In this au, robots and androids are fairly common. Sophisticated androids like the androids in Syfy's Dark Matter or the synths in HUMANS are a relatively recent development and the bugs are still being worked out. As a consequence of Sebastian's inhuman nature, he frequently gets mistaken for an android and gets incredibly offended every single time. Ciel derives endless amusement from these occurrences and brings it up frequently to annoy Sebastian in retaliation for the relentless teasing he receives from Sebastian.

Ciel is very fascinated by Victorian era fashion and customs and it shows in the decoration of his ship's interior. (And why wouldn't he be? He's a member of the British peerage, after all.) When Ciel finally got his hands on the rather massive fortune left behind by his parents at the tender age of ten, the first thing he did was get a better spaceship to live in, seeing as the one he had lived in previously had been reduced to scrap metal by vandals and scavengers. (It had taken a lot of convincing on Ciel's part in order to make the authorities let him live as an independent minor. It was his aunt Francis Midford who had finally sealed the deal; not even the authorities were willing to risk inciting Lady Midford's infamous wrath.) When he had obtained a ship that lived up to his lofty expectations, he gave Sebastian directions as to how he wanted the ship decorated.

And oh, did Sebastian deliver. Ciel will never admit it, but he was highly impressed with how well Sebastian was able to blend the modern interior design aesthetic (one of crisp lines, smooth curves, few sharp corners, white with plain bright colors, and shiny metal) with the Victorian era aesthetic. Sebastian had achieved a near perfect compromise between the two: chandeliers made of smooth, lightly twisting tendrils of glass; wallpaper with a subtle but distinctly Victorian design; glowing designs in the floor meant to mimic carpet runners; plush furniture with embroidered designs; beautiful ceramic vases filled with very realistic looking flowers (these flowers are on a rotation for variety and avoiding dust-coated flowers).

Sebastian had gone the full nine yards on the master suite: the feel was decidedly more Victorian than modern with real wood furniture (very expensive) and a marble and gold themed bathroom (also very expensive). When Ciel declared that the ship was "satisfactory", at first Sebastian was annoyed that he had worked so hard on decorating only to receive a rating of "satisfactory", but he soon realized that "satisfactory" from Ciel Phantomhive was high praise.

The second thing Ciel did after getting his fortune back was set up the means to get a business man's education so he could take back Funtom, the company his father had ran. Due to legal restrictions, Ciel was told the Midfords would handle company matters until he turned 18. After about a year, the Midfords realized that Ciel was perfectly capable of handling the company and told the executive board that they would be listening to Ciel from then on. The members of the executive board weren't too happy, but Francis was able to convince them to listen to her nephew. (Even in a futuristic setting, Francis Midford is quite the formidable woman.) Since Alexis Midford still technically operated Funtom, any money he receives from Funtom as its CEO goes straight into Ciel's bank account. Ciel is, of course, annoyed by this unnecessary middle link and wishes he could simply do away with it, but Sebastian encouraged him to simply drop the matter so that they could move onto more important matters. By the time he was 12, Ciel was able to pull enough strings to bypass any laws and become the CEO, much to his satisfaction.


	2. A Flight to Catch

The soles of Ciel's leather boots thudded dully against the tile as he made his way towards the shuttle that would take him from London to one of several space stations that orbited Earth. He was currently in between missions from the Queen of England and he had been visiting his cousin Elizabeth Midford for the past two weeks like he did every time he returned to Earth to do business.

"Post-apocalyptic fashion is in now, Ciel!" she had exclaimed. "You should try it! It would look so cute on you!"

That was how Elizabeth had practically manhandled Ciel into the outfit he was currently wearing: a dusty black sweater…thing that was open in the front and wrapped around his neck and fabric trailing down the sides, a white T-shirt with black and blue glowing designs on the front, grey skinny jeans that made his legs look even more slender than normal, and worn-looking leather boots that laced up all the way to the knee. Lizzie, knowing that Ciel did not like exposing his right eye but not knowing why, had also gotten him a matching scleral contact lens primarily due to the fact that Ciel had previously worn this type of lens. This particular design had silver and glowing blue spiraling outward from the pupil. (The glowing portion drew its power from the ambient heat of one's body, like all such technology did.) Ciel happened to like the design, but did not frequently wear contact lenses because they would get uncomfortable after too long. This was why Ciel had made a beeline for the nearest bathroom to remove it and put on one of his more favored eye-coverings.

"Ugh, why did Lizzie have me wear such a dreadful thing?" Ciel complained, shoving open the door with Sebastian behind him. "She should know I don't wear these any more. Hand me one of those wipes, Sebastian." His voice echoed slightly in the tiled room.

Sebastian obediently withdrew a damp makeup-removing cloth from the bag he carried and placed it in Ciel's outstretched hand. "You still wear them for special occasions, young master," Sebastian reminded him gently.

"Yes, and at your insistence," Ciel spat back as he began removing the bright blue glittery makeup and eyeliner from his right eye. (He typically wore this makeup on his left eye only, but when he wore the contact lens, he was obliged to wear it on both eyes.) "If I had my way, I would never wear the blasted things," he declared.

"Might I remind the young master that the lenses were his idea in the first place?" Sebastian asked.

"No, you might not," Ciel said swiftly, glaring at Sebastian in the mirror. When he deemed the eye sufficiently clean, he tossed the wipe into the trash. "Sebastian, the case."

"Yes, sir." Sebastian handed him the plastic case the lens came in.

Ciel carefully removed the lens and placed it in the case, watching as the glowing portion flickered and faded to a dull blue. He handed the case back to Sebastian.

Sebastian put the case inside the bag and removed a black silk eye patch and moved to stand behind Ciel.

"Why that plain thing?" Ciel asked, wrinkling his nose at the scrap of fabric in Sebastian's hand.

"It matches your outfit," Sebastian said simply, but made no move to tie it on him. He stared at the exposed purple eye in the mirror, his sigil shimmering slightly.

Ciel stared back into Sebastian's faintly smoldering red eyes, the black smoky eye shadow Sebastian wore accentuating the glow. He allowed this eye contact for a few moments before breaking it to fiddle with his sweater saying, "Put the damn thing on already. We've got a flight to catch."

"Yes, my lord."


	3. The Eye

AN: This deserves more/better sensory detail, but I'm too lazy to fiddle with it right now. I might fiddle with it someday, but that day is not today. Also: Sebastian headcanons ahead. If there's anything you'd like to see me expand on in this 'verse, let me know and I'll try to get around to it.

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Ciel's favorite place on the whole ship was, as the salesman called it, the Eye. The Eye was a small portion of a long and narrow domed ridge on the top of the ship, situated on the front end of the ridge. It was made out of a heavily reinforced, glare-resistant glass made especially to withstand the forces of space, unbroken by any framework or metal. The reason it was Ciel's favorite place was because of the view: with nothing but millions of stars and the occasional nebulae above and around the viewer, space was truly a sight to behold. Ciel had turned the Eye into a sitting room and any time not spent in his study (which also had an impressive view of space with a window that took up an entire side of the room) was spent in the Eye. He also frequently brought business associates and guests in there when entertaining them; whether it was to impress or intimidate them, nobody really knew.

Tonight, Ciel was intent on relaxing after the hectic week he'd had. For the past several days, he'd been planet-side personally dealing with a network of embezzling managers at a group of factories on a planet beyond the Solar System. In between visits to the factory, Ciel was obliged to humor journalists, reporters, and talk show hosts in the general area. The whole endeavor had been exhausting and time-consuming and if Ciel got one more call from anyone, he'd throw the receiver out the nearest airlock.

Ciel had just settled down into his favorite armchair in the Eye with a printed book he'd been meaning to read (printed books were a rare novelty in this day and age and Ciel collected as many as he could) when a knock came from the door.

"Come in," he said with warning edge to his voice.

The door slid open and Sebastian came in with a trolley bearing various sweet things.

"I thought that perhaps you might like something sweet to accompany your pleasure reading tonight, my lord, as a reward for making more appearances in the media this week than you do in the average month," Sebastian said as he maneuvered the trolley next to Ciel's chair.

"Damn right I deserve a reward," Ciel said, relaxing back into his chair, having tensed up in anticipation of the message he would receive.

"Tonight we have hot chocolate with strawberry shortcake and mint sugar cookies," Sebastian said as he set the tray down onto the table next to Ciel. "Would you like some whipped cream to go with your hot chocolate, my lord?"

"Of course I want whipped cream, who do you think I am? And two desserts tonight? You spoil me, Sebastian," Ciel commented dryly.

"Well, you took all those requests in stride like a proper gentleman and didn't lash out even once," Sebastian said as he spooned in a generous helping of whipped cream. "That deserves a reward all by itself."

"If behaving nicely gets me more sweets, then perhaps I should do it more often," Ciel remarked with a smirk. He nodded approvingly at the amount of whipped cream Sebastian spooned into the hot chocolate.

"Don't get your hopes up Young Master, this is a one-time occurrence."

"So enjoy it while it lasts, hmm?" Ciel murmured as he brought the glass up to his lips.

"Indeed. Is there anything more you require from me, my lord?" Sebastian asked.

"Ciel took a slow sip from his glass, relishing in the taste of this rare ambrosia. He stayed silent for a few more moments as he took a taste of the strawberry shortcake.

"What would happen if you were to fall into a black hole, Sebastian?" Ciel asked at length.

Sebastian blinked a couple times, thrown off a bit by the seemingly random question. "Well," he began after a couple moments of thought, "This body would be unable to escape as it is constrained by the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time. However, you may rest assured, my lord, that I would be able to escape it and return to your side."

"But how would you do it, Sebastian?" Ciel pressed.

Sebastian can clearly visualize how he would do it in his head, but there are no words in any of the human languages that could sufficiently describe it, not even remotely, but the Young Master clearly wanted a detailed description of the method he would use. Instead of trying to describe the method using a complicated series of analogies, Sebastian goes for the simpler answer.

"To describe how I would escape from a black hole requires vocabulary that humans simply do not possess, my lord. It is a complicated series of maneuvers that requires…" Here Sebastian paused, searching for the proper word, " _shifting_ through multiple dimensions beyond the three that humans can comprehend."

Ciel frowned, unsatisfied with Sebastian's answer. "Do you mock my intelligence? I do not appreciate being talked down to, Sebastian." Ciel was not pouting, but it could be heard rather clearly in his voice.

"I do not intend to imply that you are unintelligent, my lord, quite the opposite. However, I think even the most brilliant scientist would have significant difficulty imagining what it would be like to live in the seventh dimension," Sebastian replied. "It is not a matter of intelligence, but a matter of the limits of the human mind, my lord."

Ciel nibbled on one of the mint cookies and mulled over Sebastian's response, still frowning. "I suppose you have point," he conceded. "Time travel is quite difficult to contemplate as it is, and that's only the fourth dimension." Ciel would've pressed further for a proper answer, but he was too comfortable and content with his hot chocolate to put up a fuss about it.

"Indeed, my lord. Is there anything else you need, Young Master?" Sebastian asked.

"No, that will be all, Sebastian," Ciel responded, picking up his book.

"Very well. I shall take my leave, then." Sebastian bowed slightly and wheeled the trolley out of the room and the door closed behind him with a light hiss.

Ciel sighed and burrowed deeper into the cushions, settling himself in for a pleasant evening of sweets and reading. He gazed outside at the stars, absently watching the stars pass by in the distance for a few moments before he turned back to his book, content to read by the warm light of the lamps in the room for the remainder of the evening.


End file.
